Amazon Prime Day arrives next week, but our post-pandemic city streets are increasingly unready for prime time — even for an ersatz two-day sale manufactured by the e-commerce giant.
Last year’s Prime Day racked up a record $10.4 billion in sales, part of a surge in online retailing that grew by a looks-like-a-typo 44% during the pandemic in 2020 and now make up 21.3% of all retail sales — the largest one-year increase in market share in history. Online shopping became a lifeline for people to order food and supplies safely during lockdowns, a disruption that may have permanently reset consumer habits. Some estimate that 2022 will be the first year to record at least $1 trillion in online sales.
But in cities, this shopping revolution is increasingly measured in traffic congestion, pollution and compromised safety. Delivering — literally and figuratively — on the success of the online shopping business model relies on a failing transportation model, with home delivery turning public streets into pop-up parking lots, loading zones and distribution facilities for e-commerce businesses.
One online order can easily generate multiple vehicle trips via the U.S. Postal Service, UPS or private carriers to deliver even the tiniest items — a package of paper towels arrives in the morning, a box of cereal arrives midday and a 2.5-ounce tube of bike-chain lube is handed off in the afternoon. While we love to see the delivery person pull up with that must-have item, we don’t love the trucks double- and triple-parked outside, blocking traffic, buses and bike lanes — not to mention the negative impact they have on the brick-and-mortar businesses struggling to stay open nearby.
A report published today by the National Association of City Transportation Officials, Bloomberg Associates and the clean energy think tank the Pembina Institute calls for urgent action by cities to ward off this gathering delivery deadlock. (Disclosure: Bloomberg LP is CityLab’s parent company.) The report gathers global examples of how cities can better manage their freight-moving needs, such as neighborhood-scale delivery hubs, loading zones that utilize pricing technology, citywide e-commerce charges and new systems that make the most of underused inland waterways.
These are logistical practices that the industry can adopt and adapt, but only if it chooses to — and only if governments make it more in their interest to do so.
Technology is already making it easier to take first step. Many cities are seeing uptake in the use of cargo e-bikes for delivery, picking up parcels at area microhubs and consolidation centers in dense urban areas. Local transfer centers also make it possible to use small electric vans or bikes instead of large trucks to complete deliveries, reducing the footprint of delivery vehicles on streets. Parcel lockers at central locations can be more secure and convenient for people abandoning the home office for a return to office work, and lead to fewer trucks on residential streets.
It’s increasingly up to cities to take action and experiment. Santa Monica, California, earlier this year piloted the nation’s first low-emission delivery zone, giving priority to zero-emission vehicles and more efficient delivery. The New York City Council is studying the feasibility of electric delivery vehicles and in April took up a package of bills to promote more sustainable deliveries, including possible e-commerce charges to support local businesses.
These recommendations are in addition to more obvious actions long needed to reverse the impact of trucks in cities, even if the political will is often absent. Establishing shared facilities where carriers can consolidate deliveries based on the destination and not on the company would ensure that the bike-chain lube arrives at the same time and in the hands of the same delivery person who brings the paper towels and the cereal box.
Large and cumbersome delivery trucks are out of place on city streets, creating chaos and danger by blocking sightlines of people trying to cross the street. A new generation of compact vehicles are already rolling out in many cities and pedestrian-dense districts worldwide. Moving more deliveries to non-peak times has also proved to be an effective strategy in New York — particularly in the sweet spots before and after the peak rush.
Curbside parking remains a vast, untapped resource, with decades-old regulations that don’t reflect current uses, leaving cities and industry in the dark as to the size, cost and hours of operation of loading zones. Initiatives like SharedStreets can help: Developed by NACTO and rolled out in 2018, it’s a digital resource that creates detailed data maps of the vast curbside network, allowing cities to analyze, manage, price and allocate space depending on needs at specific times, days and on changing needs.
These technologies and policies can help city leaders rein in the worst effects of today’s e-commerce boom, and protect residents and road users from whatever new disruption awaits. The future of online shopping is downloading on our streets, and if cities don’t start laying the groundwork for something better, we will watch as the truck traffic mounts.
Janette Sadik-Khan is the chair of the National Association of City Transportation Officials and a principal at Bloomberg Associates.